A Little Elbow Room, Please
by When Blueberries Attack
Summary: Emotionally and physically pushed to his limits, Shawn finds it difficult to cope after he is put through a traumatic ordeal.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Psych.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

Shawn turned in his sleep, groaning when he was disturbed by a faint tapping sound. Cracking one eye open, he looked over towards his window, letting out a high-pitched scream, rolling over and falling out of bed when he saw a man's face pressed up against the glass. Details, such as his strong jawline, long right cheek scar and unacceptably messy hair instantly burned themselves effortlessly into Shawn's mind due to his photographic memory. Too scared for rational thought, Shawn used his arms and legs to slide himself backwards across the floor on his butt. It wasn't until he hit against a wall that he realised being on his feet would probably be more useful for fleeing. He put his palm against the wall, pushed himself upwards and shakily made a run towards the front door, jumping back when the intimidatingly large man burst through.

 **Knife.**

Momentarily frozen with fear, Shawn finally found his voice, "L-look man, take whatever you want." He edged his way backwards as the guy walked slowly towards him, "Seriously dude, take anything." He rambled nervously, sucking in a breath when the back of his thigh hit against the side table next to his bedroom door. He put his left hand back, fumbling along the smooth surface of the table until he finally felt the set of keys under his fingertips, "Most of this stuff isn't even mine." He could see his phone on the kitchen counter, unfortunately it was behind the crazy man who was trying to kill him, so, fully aware that there was no way he was going to be able to call for help, he clasped the keys in his hand, and turned on his heel just as the man made a grab for him. Without looking back, Shawn ran into his bedroom, jamming his feet as far into his Kangaroos as possible, before opening his window and climbing out.

He hop-ran towards his Norton as he tried to get the Kangaroos on his feet properly, got onto his bike, pleading with it to start, then gave a sigh of relief when it did, and zoomed away down the road.

* * *

Gus' eyes shot open, someone was in his apartment. He grabbed the nearest weapon, a shoe, held it shoulder-high, flipped on the jackal switch and stealth moded his way towards the bad guy, letting out a war cry as he went in for the surprise attack, narrowly stopping himself when he realised who it was, "Shawn?" He lowered his weapon, "What are you doing in my apartment? I could have killed you!"

Despite the impending danger, there was no way Shawn could let that one slide, "With your shoe?" He smirked.

Gus' expression turned indignant, "Shoes can be very effective weapons Shawn!"

"Are all your windows and doors locked?" He asked as he made sure all the bolts were across the door.

"Why, do you wanna practice your breaking-in skills on those too?"

"Dude!" Shawn snapped, brushing past him and checking the closest window. It was locked.

"Of course they're locked," Gus walked after him, "how long have you known me?"

"Double check." He shut the blinds, then made a tiny gap with his fingers to look through. There was no sign of the maniac.

"Shawn, what's going on?" His friend's behaviour seemed a little frantic, and it was making him feel nervous.

Shawn turned back to face him, "Someone's trying to kill me."

"What?"

"They were in my apartment, Gus." He moved away from the window and grabbed the edge of the coffee table that was sitting in the middle of the room, dragging it in front of the apartment door with the help of Gus, who had grabbed hold of the other side, " I managed to escape through the window, but I think he's coming after me..."

"There's a crazed killer chasing you, and you came here?!" At Shawn's glare, Gus added, "I'm just saying, you know plenty of people more suited for this sort of thing than I am. Like Lassie, Juliet...Your dad."

"And out of all those people, you're the one I thought of buddy." Shawn interrupted before the list could get any longer, "Doesn't that make you feel special?"

"Not really, it just confirms my theory that you're an idiot."

"Give me your phone."

"You don't have yours?"

"Dude, there was a maniac standing in my way, what was I supposed to do, ask if I could squeeze past him and grab it?"

Gus shot his best friend a death glare at his sarcastic reply, passing the phone over with more force than was necessary.

* * *

Lassiter opened his eyes and instinctively went for his gun when his sleep was disturbed by a buzzing sound. He lowered his weapon and reached across the bedside table to grab his phone when he realised what the noise was, letting out a low groan when his bleary eyes were able to focus enough to get a look at the caller ID. Momentarily hovering over the reject button, he went ahead and answered it, against his better judgement, instead, "I swear to god Spencer, if you're phoning me at three thirty in the morning and you're not in a life or death situation, I'm gonna put a bullet straight through you!"

"Well you're in luck, because there's a crazy maniac outside who's trying to kill me!" Shawn's voice hissed through the phone.

Lassiter swung his legs out of bed, slipped on his shoes and wasted no time rushing into the other room to put on his coat, Shawn sounded genuinely freaked out, "Where are you...?"

As Shawn was giving him his location, a quick but detailed statement of what had happened and an impressive description of what the guy looked like, considering it was dark and he'd obviously been panicked, Lassiter had left his house and gotten into his car, "Stay put and don't do anything stupid. I'm on my way."

Once he'd hung up, he immediately called his partner, who unsurprisingly sounded like she'd also been asleep, and then he called the station. He'd ordered half of the on-duty officers to head to Shawn's apartment, and the other half to Gus', where he and Juliet were going.

Lassiter pulled up to the building just after the two police cars, and moments before Juliet. When his partner reached him, he told her to check on Shawn and Gus, before heading off with a group of officers to search for their suspect.

Juliet jogged up to Gus' apartment, holding her firearm, "SHAWN?" She called out, knocking on the door, "GUS...?"

"JULES?" Shawn shouted back, "Hold on..."

Juliet narrowed her eyes when she heard a scraping noise from inside, "Are you moving furniture...?"

A moment later, Shawn opened the door. Her eyes widened when she entered, the room had been turned upside down as the two of them had created what appeared to be a makeshift fort.

Shawn gave her a sheepish grin when she looked at him, "Gus got scared." Was his feeble excuse.

"I got scared?" Gus countered, "You started moving furniture first Shawn!"

She rolled her eyes as their unintelligible whisper-argument commenced, and poked her head outside, firearm still at her side as she looked out for any sign of the suspect.

* * *

It was starting to get light by the time Lassiter returned from his search. As he entered Gus' apartment, Shawn's face lit up, it was like christmas had come early.

"Not a word Spe-"

"Detective Lassiter, are you wearing jammies too?" There were equal levels of glee and mockery in his tone, "Can anyone say 'slumber party'?"

Lassiter screwed up his face in disdain, "You said someone was trying to kill you, I hardly had time to change...MCNAB!"

The officer appeared from...Somewhere, "Yes Sir?"

"Escort these two nimrods to the police station." He turned to Shawn, "O'Hara and I will head over to your apartment. We've searched all over here, there's no sign of the suspect. If he did follow you, he's long gone by now."

Juliet followed Lassiter out to his car.

"We're coming with you." Shawn announced, as the two detectives entered the vehicle.

Gus looked at him, "We're what?!"

Lassiter didn't even get a chance to protest before Shawn had gotten into the back of his car, dragging Gus in with him, "Spencer, I swear if you don't get out of..."

"Lassie, lighten up. All the team's together, this is gonna be fun." Shawn gave an over the top grin.

Lassiter shot him a disgusted look, "There is no 'team'."

"Admit it Lassie, you could use my acute psychic abilities, and you know it."

"It couldn't hurt to have him come along." Juliet predictably sided with the so-called psychic.

Seething, Lassiter managed to get out the word, "Fine." through gritted teeth, before pulling out of the driveway and driving off to their next location.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Shawn had been wrong in thinking that the bad guy had chased him to Gus' place, that much was clear as soon as they entered his apartment. The place looked like an earthquake had struck it, everything was either damaged, tipped over, moved or scattered everywhere. Cracking and rustling sounds could be heard from beneath their shoes as they made their way across the barely visible apartment floor. At first appearances It certainly seemed as though the guy had been searching for something, although Shawn couldn't for the life of him think of what that 'something' could be, especially considering he didn't really have anything of real value, and he hadn't been lying either when he'd told the guy most of the stuff wasn't his. Shawn turned guiltily to Gus, whose lips were quivering as he took in the sight of dozens of his favourite shirts, torn and ruined, probably beyond repair. Gus' quivering lips steadied, and Shawn gave him an uneasy smile and started to back away as he watched Gus' face contort into a furious glare.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU SHAWN!" Gus declared as he made a lunge for his best friend.

As Shawn jumped back away from him, Lassiter was forced to grab the psychic detective roughly by the forearm and drag him aside to stop him from colliding with Juliet, "For the love of god you two, this is a crime scene!" He scolded, "Now is there anything missing or not?" He demanded impatiently.

Shawn rubbed at his forearm and then put an overturned chair back on all four legs before getting up on it and putting his hand to his head as he concentrated. His eyes moved rapidly but subtly as he scanned the place, taking everything in at an impressive speed, "Oh no!" He called out suddenly, jumping down from the chair, running to the kitchen area and getting down on his hands and knees as he started to frantically rummage through the big pile of mess that was covering the kitchen floor.

"What is it?" Juliet asked in concern as she squatted down beside him and started to rummage too, despite having no idea what she was actually looking for.

"Oh thank god…" Shawn breathed a sigh of relief moments later as he stood back up, pizza box in hand, "Whew, that was a close one." At the unimpressed stares they were giving him, Shawn just shrugged, "What? It would've been a waste of a coupon."

Lassiter pinched the bridge of his nose, "Give me strength…!" He seethed.

As Shawn opened the box and started to peel a slice of the half eaten pizza from it, Gus slapped his hand away, "What if the crazy maniac poisoned it Shawn?"

Shawn rolled his eyes, "Dude, why would he poison my left-over pizza?"

"I don't know. Why did he…Is that pineapple." Gus asked as the super sniffer caught a whiff of the pizza. He took a bigger sniff, his eyes suddenly widening and a creepy smile appearing on his face, "It is!"

Shawn moved the pizza box away as Gus' face moved in closer, "Oh, now you wanna eat it?" He rolled his eyes.

"Guys, focus!" Juliet snatched the pizza box off Shawn, "Did he take anything?"

"I don't think so." Shawn answered as he walked over to his bathroom and had a look to see if anything was missing out of there, "I'm sensing the crazy guy trashed this place out of rage because I got away." He continued as he walked out of the bathroom and into his bedroom, hand to his head again, "I'm also sensing that this whole thing is case related."

"But you said you'd never seen the guy before, Shawn." Gus called out to him. He raised an eyebrow when his foot hit something, then bent down and picked the object up when he realised it was Shawn's phone.

"I haven't. He's probably working for one of the bad guys I caught." Shawn shouted back. Moments later he emerged from his bedroom, "Nothing's missing." He announced. Gus held up the phone and he grabbed it from him.

Lassiter put his hands on his hips, "Alright then, we're gonna need a list of those criminals."

Shawn smirked, "OK Lassie, but it could take a while, I've solved a lot of cases."

"Just write the damn list Spencer." Lassiter Slammed a notebook and pen into Shawn's chest, "And why you're at it make a list of all the people that have reasons to wanna hurt you as well."

"C'mon man, who would wanna hurt me?"

"Why don't you start with my name and then go from there?" Lassiter suggested, his patience wearing thin. Shawn gripped at his chest dramatically and shot Lassiter a hurt look, but before Lassiter could say anything else his phone rang.

Shawn's carefree attitude was really starting to get on Juliet's nerves, "Shawn, if this guy is targeting you then there's a good chance your life is in danger, so maybe you should start taking things a little more seriously!"

"Jules, this is just the way I do things OK? I can't let this guy get into my head because if I d-" Shawn's face suddenly turned serious, "...I should call my dad." He turned on his phone and started flicking through his contacts, "Who knows what the crazy maniac dude'll do to get to me."

Lassiter put away his phone, "No need Spencer, he's already at the police station, which is where we're going now. Chief's orders."

* * *

Lassiter gritted his teeth as he was forced to drive while listening to Shawn and Gus complain like five year olds from the back seat of his car.

"Aw, C'mon Lassie, at this rate I'll starve to death before that crazy maniac even has a chance to get his hands on me…"

"Spencer for the last time, I'm not stopping just so you and Guster can go get breakfa-Aaahhh…!" The four of them were flung to the left as a white unmarked truck rammed into the front right-hand side of their car at full speed. Tires screeched and high pitched screams could be heard from the back seat as Lassiter tried desperately to gain control of the wildly spinning vehicle, which finally came to a stop when it crashed backwards through a wall with great force.

Lassiter let out a low groan, ears ringing and head banging as he started to open his eyes. It took a moment before he was able to focus enough to make out a figure dragging a limp body towards the white truck, "S-Spencer…!" He croaked out, fumbling with his seat belt as he tried to free himself from the vehicle.

Once he was out, Lassiter attempted to pursue the bad guy, but it was no use, his head was spinning and he was too unsteady on his feet to stay upright. The next thing he knew he was sliding down the side of his car onto his butt. Blinking to get his eyes to focus again, he managed to get his gun out of its holster and aim it shakily in the general direction of the bad guy, "POLICE! STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING OR I _WILL_ SHOOT" He warned, blinking in desperation as he tried to get his vision to focus. The man just shot him a quick glance and then carried on getting Shawn into the back of the truck. Lassiter had his finger on the trigger but there was no way he could pull it, he was too lightheaded and his vision was so blurry now that he couldn't risk shooting at the bad guy because there was too greater chance of him missing and hitting Shawn instead.

"Damnit!" Lassiter shouted out helplessly as the man got into the truck and drove away. He rested his head back against the car before a whiff of smoke caught his attention, "Huh?" He looked around, "Oh, crap…!" He exclaimed, using the car as support as he got himself back onto his feet. He made his way unsteadily to the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the door. Juliet, who was holding her head and groaning, looked up at him, confused, "C-Carl-?"

"Come on O'Hara," He said as he helped her out of the vehicle, "We gotta go!" His movements were steadier now as the dizziness had started to subside. Once she was safe he rushed back over to the smoking vehicle to help Gus. Having taken the brunt of the impact as it smashed through the wall, the back of the car, especially on Gus' side, was badly damaged so Lassiter had to try and get him to him from where Shawn had been sitting, "Guster!" Lassiter leant over and tried to shake him awake, "Guster!" But it was no use, Gus was out cold. Lassiter managed to get a grip on his shoulders and started to pull him out and over to where Juliet was sitting just before his car went up in flames.

"SHAWN!" Juliet screamed out, lunging towards the car. Lassiter grabbed onto her, holding her back, "O'Hara it's OK, he's not in there. The guy has him, he has Spencer…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Movement was the first thing Shawn became aware of, along with a banging headache so bad it made him want to peel back the top of his head and massage his own brain. He was in a vehicle, that much he could tell, but due to the brain fog it took him a moment or two for the events of the last few hours to come back to him, and even when they did the memories were only fragmented. The last thing he was able to remember however was the fear he felt as he caught a glimpse of his best friend's limp body beside him. Confused and disorientated, Shawn started to call out desperately to his best friend, his voice shaky and panicked. Then he started to call out to Lassiter and Juliet too as he rubbed at his blurred eyes to get them to focus, his fear for the three of them rising each moment he shouted out their names and got no response.

As his vison and mind became clearer he soon realised that he was no longer in Lassiter's car, but before he was able to make sense of it all his body was flung from one side of the van to the other as the vehicle took a sharp turn and came to an abrupt halt. With no time to recover, the doors to the back of the van were ripped open and Shawn felt fingers dig into his chest as he was dragged forward aggressively, the last thing he managed to see was a fist flying right for his face.

* * *

Shawn's head was still banging painfully when he regained consciousness for a second time, but the movement he'd been aware of before had now stopped. The position he found himself in was so uncomfortable that his body was crying out in pain, and upon trying to shift to a more comfortable position he discovered that he could barely move at all. As his eyes started to focus he noticed there were strange lines moving across his vision and it wasn't until his vision became much clearer that he realised the lines weren't actually moving and in fact weren't lines at all, they were bars, metal bars, surrounding him in the confined space he'd been awkwardly cramped into.

He was locked in a cage, and not a spacious one, this cage was obviously designed to hold something much smaller than a human, something that most likely walked on all fours. He took in his surroundings, or rather everything in his field of vision as the awkward position he was in prevented him from turning his head much. He appeared to be in a large basement of some sort, and one that had been abandoned for quite a while by the looks of it. There were pipes everywhere, the floor looked wet, the walls looked corroded, and the lighting was pretty dim. As far as Shawn was concerned, wherever he was, the place was definitely not up to code.

If it wasn't for the fact that he was cramped in so tight he could have made an attempt to kick the door open, but as he unfortunately discovered, trying to get one of his legs to untangle so he was actually able to kick out resulted in nothing but pain, and rocking his body back and forth did nothing to help either because something heavy had been placed on top of the cage. It was obvious that he wasn't going to escape without some help, unfortunately for him though help was probably going to take a while considering the last time he'd checked, aside from the high possibility that this was case related, they had no real leads on who his captor might be, which meant they couldn't even begin to know where to look. That was assuming that after the car crash the four of them had been in, Gus, Lassiter and Juliet would even be able to look for him at all. He quickly shook those thoughts out of his mind, deciding firmly that the others were fine.

Because they had to be.

The only option he really had left at this point was to scream for help, but considering his captor had gone through all the trouble to pack him into a cage sardine-style without gagging him, told Shawn that it was incredibly unlikely that there would be anyone even remotely close enough around to hear.

The sound of his attempts to escape the cage however had obviously caught the attention of his captor as the crazed maniac came into view.

Shawn looked up at the larger man, "This isn't gonna work, it's entirely too small. Look…" He started to wriggle about, "There's no elbow room in here at all. I'm gonna need a bigger cage." To his surprise the bad guy actually opened the cage. Less surprising however was the way he roughly pulled Shawn from it and started to drag him across the room with absolutely no regard at all for his already aching limbs which were protesting even more now, "So, am I here for palm reading? A séance? I gotta tell you, I'm not as proficient at reading tea leaves, but I'll give it a try if you feel that's what you need…" He rambled on, letting his mouth run out of nervousness. When they got to the other side of the room the large man bound Shawn's wrists with a strong rope and hoisted him upwards until he was dangling uncomfortably, his big toes just shy of being able to touch the ground.

Pain shot right through his arms and into his shoulders and neck as he hung from his wrists. Trying his best to hide that pain, Shawn calmly asked, "Would it be completely inconvenient if I was to change my mind about the ca-" His request to go back into the cage was cut short as the bad guy jammed a black hood over Shawn's head, preventing him from seeing anything. In the darkness, all the relatively harmless sounds that the rundown basement was making became unsettling and creepy, as did the heavy breathing coming from his captor, who still had yet to utter a word, "If this is some sort of weird psychic hazing ritual, then you should know, I've already been initiated." That one earned him a sucker punch right to the gut, and although he was unable to see a thing, Shawn shut his eyes tight anyway as he braced himself for any more blows that would likely be coming his way.

* * *

To say this was turning out to be a very long and stressful day for Santa Barbara's Chief of Police would be an understatement. One of her consultants had been kidnapped by some crazed maniac, another consultant, along with two of her best detectives were in the hospital because of said crazed maniac, and to top it all off she was having to deal with an understandably irate, but never the less trying, Henry Spencer, who had taken it upon himself to take over the whole case despite the fact of him being emotionally involved with it, and more importantly no longer an actual police officer.

She hadn't exactly invited him to take part in the investigation either, in fact she'd flat out refused to let him get involved at all, quoting those exact reasons, although she hadn't really tried that hard to dissuade him. Honestly, it was more of a formality than anything else, even Henry knew that, despite all the yelling he did to get his own way. Chief Vick knew how impossible it would be to keep the retired police officer from doing everything he could to find his son, and plus, if there were any two people with the capability of managing to pull some sort of a lead from out of nowhere, it'd be him or Shawn.

The sudden sound of her head detective's voice caught her attention, "…I still can't believe she's gone." Through the open blinds she could see Lassiter with Juliet and Gus in tow, walking gingerly towards her office. The three of them definitely looked the worse for wear despite their fresh clothes, but at least they seemed to be acting more or less like themselves under the circumstances, she was pleased to note, "Come on, we need to find the scumbag who destroyed my car and send him to justice!"

Juliet stared at him in disbelief, "And rescue Shawn…"

"Uh…Yeah." He replied absentmindedly, "That too."

"Really?" Gus glared at him, "My best friend has been kidnapped and all you care about is a car?!"

Lassiter's eyes narrowed, "This coming from the guy who was more concerned about filling his stomach than coming down here so we could actually make a start on the investigation."

"Hey, I was comfort eating, that's different!"

"Comfort eating?" Lassiter scoffed as they walked into the Chief's office, "If anyone should be… "

"How are you all doing?" Chief Vick interjected before their exchange could get any more heated.

Rubbing her aching neck Juliet answered, "We're all a little sore, but we'll be fine." She smiled warmly at the Chief.

"Speak for yourself O'Hara. My baby's been destroyed, it feels like there's a brass band rehearsing in my skull, and ever since Guster woke up he's done nothing but whine and complain because apparently a concussion turns him into a complete pain in the ass!"

Chief Vick sat forward on her chair, elbows on the desk as she started to massage her temples. She gave a heavy sigh; this long day was beginning to feel a lot longer…


End file.
